On Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 12:16:03 AM UTC-4, K. Hematite wrote:
Still going strong at 91. Next show in Novato, CA in February 2023.
https://tinyurl.com/2m6hlwmm
Ramblin' Jack - Guabi Guabi (1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFC6VrXKitU
The Heylin "Double Life" book says that in, I think, 1961, Bob stole a couple of Jack Elliott records that Jon Pankake (who ran the Little Sandy Review with Paul Nelson) had gotten from England. I guess Pankake tracked Bob down and brandished a club to
reclaim the records. But by then Bob had mastered Elliott's style. Paul Nelson wrote:
"When we played him the Elliott stuff he came back in a day or two at the most, and...from being a crooner, basically...singing Josh White and Belafonte songs and Odetta songs...he sounded like he did on the first Columbia record. He had this whole style
down that quickly...He did what it took Elliott ten, fifteen years in two days."
The passage on the Little Sandy Review is interesting. Apparently it had a vendetta against the new wave of people calling themselves folk artists (e.g., the Kingston Trio). They ran an editorial stating that they would target "any and all phonies who
water, dilute, and peret Americqn folk music - transforming it into Folkum rather than folksong." After seeing Bob perform, Pankake told him "Why don't you go back to rock and roll." Heylin thinks this comment caused Bob to take the Elliott records.
In a press conference in Perth in 1966, Bob had the following exchange with a reporter:
Q: Folk songs are usually written about misery, bombs, and racial troubles... BD: No, folk songs are not written about that. Not at all! I'm afraid you don't know much
about folk songs. You're speaking of topical songs - 1930 labor movement songs and
stuff like that. Those are not folk songs.
Q: Well, how would you define folk songs?
BD: Folk songs are traditional songs or ballads. They're not meant to be sung at parties
or in crowded rooms where there's noise.
I haven't heard of performers that are called topical singers. U. Utah Phillips? Woody for some songs, but I wouldn't call "Car Car" topical. And Bob did both (I'd call "Hattie Carroll" topical, but "Girl from the North Country" folk). Bob would probably
say none of his songs are either.
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